Told daughter yr 1behind and struggling at Maths - how behind is she?

[lifeinthemidlands]

I would be really grateful for some advice on this. At a very negative parent's evening I was told my DD was struggling badly at Maths. What I haven't been able to really ascertain is how bad it is, and what should be expected of her at this stage. She's in a high achieving year 1 / 2 class at a state school, so am not sure how much is in comparison with her peers, rather than against the norm. To give you examples she can:
count to 100
add numbers in her head up to 10, and use a number line to do addition / subtraction to 20 reasonably reliably (thought this is fairly recent)
Do number bonds for 10 (again fairly recent)
Know more than / less than for numbers up to 100, and can fill in gaps in a number square
Count in 10s, but am not sure she knows the significance of this
Can have problems writing numbers. For instance gets 9 round the wrong way, and may occasionally reverse the digits of 2 digit numbers (e.g. 19 and 91). This is particularly for nos 11-19.
Knows shapes well (up to hexagon, pentagon).

Her reading and literacy are quite strong, but she is clearly lacking confidence in maths and clearly doesn't find it easy. I've started doing some stuff at home with her, and she doews make progress, although it is clearly not easy for her.
I would really welcome any thoughts on how much of a problem this is (it was never raised in year R). I really don't want to overload her with more work at home,buyt I certainly don't wnat her to fall behind in a fast moving class and loose even more confidence.
Many thanks

[IndigoBell]

Doesn't sound like she's behind to me.

[tteach]

Really!? Struggling badly? Well in that case most of my class are struggling badly! In my year 1 class your daughter would be towards the top half of the class. I would work on the recording of numbers with her (though this is fairly common at this age) and not worry too much about the rest-she sounds like she's doing really well! Were you given anything specific to work on in terms of targets? Is the list of things she can do your observations or the teacher's?

If shes' strong at literacy then maybe her Maths seems weaker in comparison but I definitely don't think you should be worrying! How does she feel about Maths?

[lifeinthemidlands]

Really? I was certainly left with the impression it was a big problem and they were having to give her a lot of support in comparison with her peers. They were very negative.
Ans sorry about the excess of "clearlys" in my post!

[lifeinthemidlands]

I supposethat maybe she's not performing as well in class as she can at home. This was my assessment of her - not the schools. They didn't specify what they thought she could or couldn't do. She certainly lacks confidence in maths, and has found the transition from year r to 1 difficult. The teachers appear to have very high expectations of a child's ability to work independently which she is also struggling with.

[floweryblue]

Maths is all about understanding the basics, how do you feel about it OP?

[TheRepublicOfDreams]

I think you need to go back and ask their specific concerns. Ask how you can support her. Ask how she compares to the expected NC levels for year 1 at this stage. You need more info from the school. What was their exact wording?

[lifeinthemidlands]

No tteach - they just said she seemed to have no feel for numbers (although I did see her workbooks where she had clearly done some of the things I listed). We basically ran out of time so will arrange another meeting. Am finding this reassuring though! Really felt I'd let her down not realising there was a problem before this.

[tteach]

The independence aspect may be more appropriate-if she is unwilling to 'have a go' herself and is being quite needy with the adults. Sounds like this may be more of the thing to be working on-building up her confidence with simple Maths tasks at home that she has a go at by herself. Reception to year 1 can be a tricky transition in this respect but sounds like this may be more the area to be working on than the Maths. If I was you I would go back and ask for further clarification of what she can/can't do and what her 'next steps'/targets are to be working on over this half term/how you can support.

[lifeinthemidlands]

Flowery - I don't think she's made a huge amount of progress since starting school generally in maths, but was reassured that the first year was very literacy heavy, so I shouldn't be too worried. I feel she still needs more practice with some of the basics (particulary basic arithmetic) and that there's a risk the class will move on without her consolidating it. I think she sometimes picks up "half the concept" - e.g. they've obviously done units (10s and 1s) and she seems to have a vague idea but not grasped it thoroughly (probably because of the fact she's still not comfortable with the basic

[tteach]

Sorry cross posted! 'No feel for numbers' sounds very vague and would only be applicable to a child with a real problem in Maths which doesn't sound like your description! Do be aware though that children often are capable of more on a 1:1 basis so this may account for a degree of mismatch.

[lifeinthemidlands]

I think this may be it tteach. I have already made an appt to see the teacher again with more specific questions, and comments from all posters will help me formulate these. Also helps to get some perspective of where her current abilities actually lie in relation to the "norm".

[floweryblue]

lifeinthemidlands I am not a teacher, I have no idea about child literacy/numeracy/development. All I can say is that I found it all very easy, DSis, same parents, found it a bit more difficult.

On one occasion I told my neighbour that maths was easy for me and I would be happy to help her daughter who was struggling with about 12 year old stuff. The little girl came to me twice, an hour at a time, six months later her mum told me she was now in the top group at school, having moved up from the bottom.

[TheTenantOfWildfellHall]

I opened this thread wondering how your DD compares to mine. I would say that my DD is about the same as yours, with the exception that she might need a bit of support to fill in the 100 square and to give more/less than a number to 100.

She is not falling behind.

[Pancakeflipper]

Is she at the school of G&T kids only?

That's not behind.

Is it more of a confidence thing than actually being behind?

[whoopeecushion]

She isn't behind. I have a DS in year 1 who can't do some of the things you list and his teacher isn't worried about him.

[PrinceRogersNelson]

I would be chuffed if my son could do all that!
He is some where in the middle for Maths and cannot do all that you have listed.

Is it a very high achieving school?

[WowOoo]

My son is pretty much the same in understanding as your dd and I was told he was doing very well.
Do you think the teacher is thinking of her as a yr2 rather than a year 1? I take it she's in a mixed class. She certainly has very high expectations, which can be a good thing but not if your dd is not confident.
Good luck with the next meeting. I had loads of Q's planned and in a moment it was over. Not enough time.

[crazygracieuk]

Your dd is doing well at maths. Could the teacher mean that her progress has slowed down or that she needs to practice real life applications of maths rather than straight sums etc? If she lacks confidence maybe she is not volunteering answers or showing how good she really is?

Definitely worth having things clarified.

[gabid]

Did you understand the teacher right? Sounds fine to me. I would go and let the teacher explain what she meant, what she is behind with exactly.

[redskyatnight]

She can do virtually the same as my Y1 DD, who is in the top maths group in her class. Sounds like she has a very strong peer group.

[shebird]

My DD has had the same problem in Y1 and really struggled with the transition from maths in reception to Y1. I think the pace of the subject picks up and like you say there are various concepts they need to grasp before they can move on to the next step or they do get left behind.
Confidence is also a big issue because once they are aware that they are a bit behind it all becomes hard work.

Practice, practice is all you can do with maths. There are lots of books KS1 workbooks available and I just work through these when I can with DD. Play shops, count money and give change, use lego or pasta shapes to practice adding on, taking away and sharing/dividing.

[soandsosmummy]

She sounds similar to my DD who has been described as her teacher as strong in maths. Are you sure she's not been confused with someone else in the class. I think she's doing well for year 1.

[Ferguson]

Hi

I've been working with Yr1 Yr2 kids for bout twenty years, mostly as TA, and she sounds fine to me too. We have had Y2, even Yr3 who couldn't do all those things accurately.

shebird beat me to it, but, Yes, do as much practical hands-on stuff as poss. Many kids find the recording of number difficult, but if they have something to handle it helps a lot. Workbooks may be daunting, but if she's happy, try them.

Can take some kids long time to understand what '10' (ten) really represents, and many confuse 14 and 40 etc; it's just marks on a page to them. There are school websites that are brilliant: I'll see if I can do a link, but I never done one before!

//www.ictgames.com/resources.html

///www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk

'ictgames' was formerly Toftwood school and can be a bit temperamental, but it's worth persevering. "Save the Whale" is number bonds and is lovely!

Woodlands-junior I've given you the whole site, but you can look for their maths games, and it is all very impressive. (I think it was the wonderful mrz who put me on to that one, and I quote it all the time now.)

If you any problems, send me a personal message if you wish.

Good luck

[PastSellByDate]

lifeinthemidlands

Well first of all I'm jealous as anything, it sounds like your school is 'on fire' and has some high expectations. I wouldn't take it as 'your daughter is struggling' - I'd take it as they're saying she's not as able to keep up with her classmates and asking you to help her and them with that.

Now to get a good idea of what is expected in layman's terms I suggest you visit the Campaign for real education www.cre.org.uk/primary_contents.html - they outline the basic points that should be covered for each year by subject and it's very clear and I've found it hugely helpful.

Does it matter if you're daughter isn't 'keeping up' - well that's up to you. However, there is a lot of baggage that goes with moving down groups and seeing your friends do well when you're struggling. Some kids are troubled by this and others are aware but not really bothered. It just depends on the child.

You know your DD best, so you can judge how to proceed. What I will say is that what the teacher's are asking her to learn is something she will have to learn anyway. It may be earlier than you anticipated, but perhaps that isn't all bad.

[zipzap]

How much of this is because of your dd and howuch do you think it is the teacher?

Ds1 had real troubles in y1 last year with his reading and writing rather than maths but I think lots of it was due to the teacher rather than him iyswim. He got a really bad first y1 report about everything despite having done well in reception. Even to the point that I asked her if we were talking about the same child (she said he wad monosyllabic and couldn't concentrate - at home he doesn't pause for breath but just keeps chattering about anything and everything non stop, and when he is interested in something he will sit and concentrate for hours). He had a bad start to the year, missing the first 10 days to bad chicken pox and then went back still with scabs and scars into a class that had been shuffled from the previous year and having missed the transition from relaxed reception to serious y1.

But lots of it was due to the way the teacher mishandled him and didn't recognise how to get the best out of him (something that his reception and u2 teachers have no problems with). And as it turns out, lots of other kids/parents subsequently had problems with this teacher that were due to the way she handled people, her lack of empathy and lack of people skills.

It's a bit worrying if this person is likely to teach your dd for the next couple of years but it might be worth pulling back and looking at the teacher and not just your dd about this - especially if so many people are saying it sounds like your dd is doing fine at maths.